Typical wiper blades used on vehicles are plagued with numerous persistent drawbacks. In an effort to improve upon the traditional, bracketed wiper blade, the beam blade (or flat blade) was developed, keeping a lower profile and generally providing a more uniform force distribution than most bracketed wiper blades. However beam blades do not have the lateral stability of bracketed blades, and can have problems with wrapping (i.e. keeping contact between the outer edges of the wiper blade and the windshield) when their curvature is not sufficiently sharp for the windshield, and banding (i.e. losing contact with the windshield in the middle of the wiper blade, thereby leaving an unwiped band) when their curvature is too sharp for the windshield. Accordingly, beam blades may serve well for original equipment (i.e. the wiper blades installed by manufacturers on cars that are designed specifically for that car, but can experience problems on certain vehicles if designed as aftermarket wiper blades (i.e. replacement blades designed to be used on a variety of different windshields where the manufacturer does not know what vehicle the blade will be used on).
The first generation of hybrid wiper blades developed improved on beam blade performance in these circumstances. These blades combine the use of brackets with a beam to improve on the blades' wrapping characteristics without creating problems with banding. The disclosed concept provides an improvement on the first generation hybrid wiper blades, using a combination of traditional brackets and either beams or flat brackets.
The following patent applications are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety, including their disclosures with respect to the background and field of art of wiper blades: U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 13/453,601; 13/679,646; 13/572,100 and 13/587,389.